We should fear the real threat 
instead of the false one

Part 2

A Parable

I want you to imagine a man standing on the street looking into the window of a house. In the house lives a father, mother, daughter, son. The father is a policeman and is a leading light in the town. He is starting to make headway in bringing a drug problem to its knees by being single minded about finding out where the pedlars are working and by raiding and jailing these men. The man looking in the house is the main pedlar. If this policeman carries on he will soon get to him. He has to be stopped. He cannot kill the man otherwise there will be too big an investigation. He cannot do anything to bring suspicion on himself. He wants to steal the power off this man before the man steals the power from him. He can try to make the man not quite as single minded by subtly causing problems in the family. However, it would be ideal to put a stop to his activities, by making him lose his job. He knows the only way he can get him to lose his job, is to cause the man to do something that will discredit himself. He has to make something look more important to the man than the job in hand... Something he wants, and so he studies the man's motives. Where are they not so pure. Does he long for more money, power, and sex? Is there anything selfish in any of his motives? Can he find a chink in the man's armour? What does he fear? What does he love more than his job? And so temptation begins. He starts to send in people to seduce him, or to terrorise him.

Eve had everything, but satan told her she hadn't got enough. He tempted her and Adam to cross their boundaries; doing this led them to lose their job of looking after the garden and subduing satan as they had been given authority to do. And so the devil went scot free to do his evil work all over the earth until Jesus came and stood firm against his lies. Jesus didn't have a hook for the devil to bait him. Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy, and went about doing this on a day to day basis. Jesus stayed within the limits of the boundaries that were set for him. The ploy of satan when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness was to get him to overstep the mark. Jump from the pinnacle, turn the stones into bread etc. But Jesus didn't fall for any of it. He stayed within the limits of loyalty to His Father.

What can happen to us if we step over our boundaries? We lose the prize we were going to get for standing. Promotion was coming. And we didn't know it. But the devil did. The wonderful thing is it's not over till it's over. Every test means demotion or promotion. Every test means ground gained or lost. Are we going to let the devil wreak havoc in our realm or are we going to wreak havoc in his. So how can we get back what has been stolen. There is always another test, always another opportunity. By the blood we are forgiven. We repent; we say we are sorry; we check our hearts. What is more important to us than our role in our life in Christ? Is there something more important than God? That is where the enemy strikes.

We are safe in this: Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ Matthew 22:37

James 1:12 states that, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."